This course offers a sweeping history of how the;people in China have interacted with the natural;world. Students will investigate historically;specific social, economic, and political forces;that have shaped environmental transformations in;China. The course is organized thematically;within a chronological framework. The course;concludes with a closer look at the development;of environmental practice in the modern era.

This course traces the long history of political;accountability in Africa. How did Africans wrest;good governance from their leaders? How did they;understand civic virtue and social;responsibility? What principles of political;logic did kingdoms share with societies without;kings and royal women? How did gender contribute;to structures of authority? What sources and;methods enable us to productively approach a;period of time distant from our own?

This course traces the long history of political;accountability in Africa. How did Africans wrest;good governance from their leaders? How did they;understand civic virtue and social;responsibility? What principles of political;logic did kingdoms share with societies without;kings and royal women? How did gender contribute;to structures of authority? What sources and;methods enable us to productively approach a;period of time distant from our own?

This capstone seminar explores the;trans-disciplinary practice of German studies and;its evolution from a study of literature and;language to a field that draws from multiple;disciplines, visualities, and approaches across;the liberal arts curriculum. We explore such;questions as: What does German studies mean? What;are the intersecting fields of inquiry ranging;from German Jewish studies to environmental;studies that form the way we address cultural,;social, and political issues throughout German;cultural history up to the present day?

Berlin provides a testing ground for;understanding how space shapes memory and;identity. Historic sites within the built;environment of Berlin mark historical upheaval;and reconciliation and the transformation of the;periphery into productive sites of commerce and;cultural exchange. Multiple historic and;contemporary sites will serve as a point of;departure to explore the emergence of;multidimensional identities in today's Europe.

The surface of the Earth is a history book of;past environmental change. Every hill and valley,;every erosional feature and every deposit is the;result of processes acting at the Earth's;surface. In this course we study these processes;(e.g. glaciers, rivers, slopes, coastlines, arid;regions, frozen ground, cave formation, soil;development and groundwater) to understand how;they work and to understand the resulting;landforms and deposits. With this understanding;we can then observe different landforms and;deposits and infer past processes (environments;of deposition).

The great German paleontologist Dolf Seilacher;once remarked that "drawing enforces careful;observation." As a consequence, Seilacher drew;all of the illustrations for his influential;scientific publications. Taking Seilacher's;insight into three dimensions, in this course we;will utilize Mount Holyoke's Makerspace to;reconstruct ancient organisms.

The origin of animals was arguably the most;important event in earth history. In this course;we will review the history of earth, learn basic;geology, and then examine the problem of the;origin of animals by studying Mount Holyoke;College's superb and unique collection of;Proterozoic and Cambrian fossils. The emergence;of animals has been called the Cambrian;explosion. We will examine what this means for;our understanding of evolution as we evaluate;hypotheses proposed to explain the relatively;sudden appearance of more than half of known;animal phyla during the Cambrian event.

We have a love/hate relationship with volcanoes.;We go out of our way to visit volcanoes; to;witness eruptions and to bag a high peak. But,;often volcanoes turn deadly killing hundreds of;people and making life difficult for many more.;Volcanic eruptions pose both significant local;threats and often global concerns (e.g. climate;change). Volcanoes occur on every continent, yet;they tend to occur in tectonically predictable;settings. Less predictable, however, is the;timing and magnitude of specific volcanic;eruptions.

Romans hated kings, and when they founded their;Republic they did so on principles of shared;governance and popular sovereignty in order to;prevent the rise of monarchy. Yet in times of;crisis Romans tolerated and even promoted leaders;with absolute power. How did this ideal of;popular sovereignty square with the need for;dictators? What happened when populism;confronted authoritarianism? How did Romans;represent power and authority--in literature,;ceremony, architecture, and art?